6 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB 



One zoogeographic peculiarity will become more and more obvious to 

 the reader, and this is the fact that for some inexplicable reason a number 

 of sharply defined species and subspecies are found in the eastern Province 

 of Oriente and there only. The exact boundary of these local forms is not 

 as yet accurately defined, and in some cases there may be intergradation 

 with the allied races to the westward, while in others there almost certainly 

 is not. The probable origin of these pairs of contrasted types is difficult 

 to postulate, but the more luxuriant vegetation and somewhat greater 

 heat and rainfall in Oriente, may, in part at least, account for the develop- 

 ment. A detailed study of the exact ranges and their boundary conditions 

 will be very well worth while. 



In this paper each species is given the consideration its interest seems 

 to merit. Those which show no change of status since Gundlach's time 

 only exceptionally require more than briefest mention. Some taxonomic 

 matters are considered. The order is that of Ridgway's 'Birds of North 

 and Middle America.' Much useful information has been secured from 

 Mr. Todd's 'The Birds of the Isle of Pines,' Annals Carnegie Museum, 

 vol. 10, pp. 146-296, and alleged to have been issued January 31, 1916. 



HISTORICAL 



Don Ramon de la Sagra was long director of the Botanical Garden 

 in Havana. Better known as historian and writer upon political economy 

 than as a botanist, nevertheless he was an indefatigable accumulator 

 of material illustrating all of the natural products of Cuba. De la Sagra 

 brought his collections to Paris, planning a great series of monographs to 

 comprise a 'Histoire Physique, Politique et Naturelle de I'lle de Cuba.' 

 This elaborate work finally appeared in parts, both in Spanish and in 

 French, and the volume which interests us, viz., 'Ornithologie, ' was 

 entrusted to the competent preparation of M. Alcide Dessalines d'Orbigny. 

 This versatile naturalist not only worked out and described the species 

 represented in de la Sagra's collection, but he added an account of those 

 who had previously written upon Cuban birds, paying just tribute to the 

 immortal 'Historia general y natural de las Indias' of Gonzalo Hernandez 

 de Oviedo y Valdes, the first impression of which appeared in Toledo in 

 1526. The many others whose writings contributed to a more thorough 

 knowledge of Greater Antillean birds, are adequately dealt with, and as 



